Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete First Season
What?
How many incarnations of George Lucas’ Star Wars saga has there been over the years? Films, games, books, toys and now a spin off cartoon series - you’ve got to hand it to El Beardo, he knows how to rinse every last drop out of an idea. In fairness, The Clone Wars cartoon has proved popular on television and DVD and not without reason. The show is aimed squarely at children with its brash, garish style and humour, but there is a certain amount of appeal for fans of the films. It is nice to see the famous characters in different environments, interacting with new characters within a different story. The instantly recognisable music and sound effects are used throughout meaning the general feel of Star Wars is achieved. As someone who grew up with the films I found the series too childish however, the comedy is aimed at viewers much younger than me and as a result, I didn’t enjoy every episode and every character. I know Lucas will argue that the movies are also aimed at children, but you know what I mean. The battle sequences are good fun but the style of animation used means a three dimensional look is never achieved; the large scale space battles and alien planets just aren’t suited to this style of two dimensional animation. The Family Guy spin off Blue Harvest pulled it off, so why not Lucasarts? The characters themselves also look odd, perhaps a different style would have suited a Star Wars animated series better - how cool would it be to see an anime style episode? I’m not sure I would ever be completely happy with a cartoon series based on Star Wars, the films mean a lot to me and I doubt anyone could ever do them justice. What has been achieved works for the target audience and that was undoubtedly the aim, whether or not the older generation who know the original films like the back of their hands will enjoy the show is another matter.
Optics:
Bold, bold colours and deep, deep blacks throughout means The Clone Wars was always going to look great on Blu-ray. The image fairly jumps off the screen at times thanks to some outlandish colours featured in the alien environments. Some nice detail is on show at times as well; the textures during close ups of the space ships in particular throw up much more detail than I was ever expecting. Animation nearly always equals a reference quality image but it is never a given, thankfully Warner Brothers have supplied a faultless Blu-ray presentation.
Sonics:
Well this can only go down as a real missed opportunity. The sound design is predictably impressive thanks to the trademark laser fire, light sabre hums and space ship fly bys, but the only audio option is Dolby Digital. That’s right, no lossless soundtrack at all. And the track does sound pretty good throughout, bass is tight, surrounds are active and the music fills the room BUT, how good could it have been? Perhaps the improvement would only have been minimal but there would have been an improvement that’s for sure. A good track could so easily have been a great track.
Extras:
Although on paper the extras look plentiful, in reality they are barely average in terms of quantity compared to most releases. There are twenty two short featurettes – one per episode – which can be viewed separately or as you watch each show. The set is finished off with a speak preview of the second season and a couple of easter eggs.
Well?
Star Wars nuts are sure to get a kick out of yet another outing for the famous characters but anyone wanting something a little more than what is a Saturday morning cartoon series should definitely borrow or rent a copy first.
Tom Day
How many incarnations of George Lucas’ Star Wars saga has there been over the years? Films, games, books, toys and now a spin off cartoon series - you’ve got to hand it to El Beardo, he knows how to rinse every last drop out of an idea. In fairness, The Clone Wars cartoon has proved popular on television and DVD and not without reason. The show is aimed squarely at children with its brash, garish style and humour, but there is a certain amount of appeal for fans of the films. It is nice to see the famous characters in different environments, interacting with new characters within a different story. The instantly recognisable music and sound effects are used throughout meaning the general feel of Star Wars is achieved. As someone who grew up with the films I found the series too childish however, the comedy is aimed at viewers much younger than me and as a result, I didn’t enjoy every episode and every character. I know Lucas will argue that the movies are also aimed at children, but you know what I mean. The battle sequences are good fun but the style of animation used means a three dimensional look is never achieved; the large scale space battles and alien planets just aren’t suited to this style of two dimensional animation. The Family Guy spin off Blue Harvest pulled it off, so why not Lucasarts? The characters themselves also look odd, perhaps a different style would have suited a Star Wars animated series better - how cool would it be to see an anime style episode? I’m not sure I would ever be completely happy with a cartoon series based on Star Wars, the films mean a lot to me and I doubt anyone could ever do them justice. What has been achieved works for the target audience and that was undoubtedly the aim, whether or not the older generation who know the original films like the back of their hands will enjoy the show is another matter.
Optics:
Bold, bold colours and deep, deep blacks throughout means The Clone Wars was always going to look great on Blu-ray. The image fairly jumps off the screen at times thanks to some outlandish colours featured in the alien environments. Some nice detail is on show at times as well; the textures during close ups of the space ships in particular throw up much more detail than I was ever expecting. Animation nearly always equals a reference quality image but it is never a given, thankfully Warner Brothers have supplied a faultless Blu-ray presentation.
Sonics:
Well this can only go down as a real missed opportunity. The sound design is predictably impressive thanks to the trademark laser fire, light sabre hums and space ship fly bys, but the only audio option is Dolby Digital. That’s right, no lossless soundtrack at all. And the track does sound pretty good throughout, bass is tight, surrounds are active and the music fills the room BUT, how good could it have been? Perhaps the improvement would only have been minimal but there would have been an improvement that’s for sure. A good track could so easily have been a great track.
Extras:
Although on paper the extras look plentiful, in reality they are barely average in terms of quantity compared to most releases. There are twenty two short featurettes – one per episode – which can be viewed separately or as you watch each show. The set is finished off with a speak preview of the second season and a couple of easter eggs.
Well?
Star Wars nuts are sure to get a kick out of yet another outing for the famous characters but anyone wanting something a little more than what is a Saturday morning cartoon series should definitely borrow or rent a copy first.
Tom Day
Director:
Various
Starring:
Matt Lanter
Ashley Eckstein
James Arnold Taylor
Corey Burton
Catherine Taber
Anthony Daniels
Best line:
"Let the Republic come - our ship is unstoppable."
Tagline:
Description:
Warner Brothers
UK
Region free
Rated PG
2.35:1
VC-1
Dolby Digital 5.1
(English, French, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish)
Subtitles: Eng, Fra, Dutch, Dan, Fin, Nor, Swe
Production featurettes
Season 2 preview
Easter eggs
Ratings: (Out of 10)
Film 5.0
Optics 10.0
Sonics 7.0
Extras 5.0
Overall 6.0
